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Gaia People

Marco Delbo

Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Nice

Marco Delbo, a native of Novi Ligure (AL), Italy, is a researcher at the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) at present on leave at the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur in Nice, France, with an External Fellowship of the European Space Agency (ESA).

Marco's current research activity is the study of the effects of non-gravitational forces and the presence of satellites on the high accuracy astrometric measurements that Gaia will obtain on asteroids. He has demonstrated the detectability, by Gaia, of the Yarkovsky effect for near-Earth asteroids. As a member of the Gaia DPAC (CU4 and CU2) he is working on the development and refinement of theoretical models to be used in Gaia data reduction. These models will allow the relevant physical parameters of asteroids to be derived from Gaia observations.

Marco's scientific interests are mainly focused on solar system science and on the physical characterization of minor bodies by means of observations in the thermal infrared and polarimetry in visible light. He is coauthor of the largest size and albedo radiometric survey of near-Earth Asteroids (see Delbo, M. et al, 2003, Icarus, Volume 166, Issue 1, p. 116-130, and Delbo, 2004, The Nature of near-Earth asteroids from the study of their thermal infrared emission, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany). For the past few years he has also been working on the application of new techniques of high angular resolution (interferometry at the Very Large Telescope, and Gaia) to the size determination and the discovery of binary systems of asteroids.